14 DAY TRIAL // Accelerated processing units are mostly divided into desktop chips and laptop processors, so their purposes and uses are pretty well defined. All-in-One systems tend to muddle the distinction though.
That's precisely the case of the Adora20 from Micro-Star International. You see, technically, it is a desktop, but it uses hardware normally found in mobile PCs instead. Not that it's a first for AiOs, but still.
The new computer relies on the AMD E2-3800 SoC, where SoC is short for System-on-Chip. It's an APU (accelerated processing unit) with a few extras compared to its APU kin.
The chip has four Jaguar cores, each clocked at 1.3 GHz. Also, the integrated GPU (graphics processing unit) is the Radeon HD 8280.
And it definitely is an integrated GPU, not a measly iGP (integrated graphics processor) like in Intel or AMD chips. It might not sound like much of a distinction, but there is a large performance and visual quality difference between the two.
Not that the special skills of the Radeon HD 8280 will be so readily apparent. After all, the display of the Adora20 All-in-One PC is a 19.5-inch thing of just 1600 x 900 pixels. Not even the Full HD that is so common these days (1920 x 1080 pixels).
The LCD does have an advantage over that of other AiOs though, and many monitors and television sets for that matter: less blue light technology.
You see, the blue light in the RGB color spectrum that gives displays their color capabilities is the main reason why staring at a screen for a long time can cause eye fatigue.
The Less Blue Light technology cuts the intensity of the blue light by up to 75%, and it is supplemented by the flicker-free technology. Flicker is that effect invisible to the naked eye but which, nonetheless, strains your eyes constantly. You can see it in videos of monitors/TVs.
As for everything else, the specs are pretty standard, with the AMD E2-3800 SoC backed up by up to 16 GB of DDR3L memory (laptop-type low profile modules) and storage is provided by a 2.5-inch HDD/SSD and a DVD writer.
Finally, MSI tossed in two 3W speakers, Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2 audio, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, USB 3.0/2.0 ports, HDMI output, and a 3-in-1 card reader. Sadly, the price of the MSI Adora20 AiO is unknown, or we'd have probably specified it by now. The same for the release date.